Levi & Justin

My buddy Megan, from dental hygiene school, and I went to lunch a few weeks ago. I hadn't seen little Levi since I took his announcement photo. So I was shocked to see a 4 month old that was almost 20 pounds! He was so chill and just hung out in his carseat. Ah, I miss those days.

Justin loved Levi. We tried to get a photo of the two of them. Justin is giving him a kiss, only I'm sure Levi isn't loving it so much.

Megan was close by to make sure Justin's "pats" were nice ones.

I need to make sure I see this boy more often. He's going to be such a cutie!

CBB Ice Cream Social

I was in charge of our neighborhood ice cream social back in May. We hired the ice cream man to show up and hand out ice creams to all the families. We had a great turnout. It all took place on a street with a cul-de-sac, so all the kids could run wild and have a great time without worrying about the cars.

Justin had never known that the truck that plays music in the street actually has ice cream in it. He tried an orange push-up that he later abandoned.

Then he went for the ice cream sandwich. He ate every bite of this one.

We had girls doing face painting, a station for spraying your hair (Justin chose red), and we had tattoos as an option as well.

Her's my boy showing off all the activities that he participated in.

Wondering if he will put it all together next time he hears the ice cream man driving through our neighborhood. I remember like it was yesterday when it used to come through my own neighborhood and how we would beg for a $1 to go get a sugar rush. Fun times.

Derek's Chicago trip

Derek got a call from his buddy (technically Shane's buddy first) Chat about 6 weeks ago. Chat was at a Chicago Cubs game and was telling Derek that he had seen our buddy Koyie in the dugout warming up. When Derek hung out, he had the Cubs fever. He said he would love for the two of us to go on a trip for a quick weekend and got to Cubs games. Not growing up a fan, and living a lifetime of baseball games in the 6 years of minor league ball, I nicely told him to ask his father. In a matter of days, Derek, his dad, & Ryan all got a quick weekend planned to go watch the Cubs. And wouldn't you know it that they were playing the Dodgers? So Derek got to watch all sorts of old teammates play his lifetime love.

The three fellas. The last time the three of them went a game was when Derek was 12 years old.

Thankfully Ryan, my wonderful brother-in-law, took tons of photos of the weekend. I think they all probably got teary eyed when they saw this familiar building again.

Derek's aunt Jodi lives in Chicago, so they got to stay with family and hang out as well. Since they live so far away we don't get to see them much. Such a treat for all of them to have a mini reunion. They also got to meet their cousin Janel's boyfriend. Hope he passed the test.

They also got to watch cousin Owen & Joseph's baseball games while in town. I think a lot of baseball was watched by the end of this weekend.

Go Cubies!

Though I will never share in the crazed love for this team, it's fun to watch my husband feel like a kid again. They all want to try and make this an annual event, so hopefully they can do this again.

Weekend Slumber Parties & Birthdays Galore

Catching up on posts from our weekends since Lost Pines for Memorial day weekend. The following weekend, the last one in May, Derek flew to Chicago with his dad and brother. Post to follow on that. Justin and I had 3 birthday parties and two nights of partial or all night sleepovers lined up of keeping kids. Needless to say that weekend went by in a blur.

Lily & Luke spent the night Friday night since their parents were hosting a party at their house that night. The kids ate dinner and then went outside for ice cream.

Luke slept in the trundle in Justin's room - Justin first official sleep over. For the most part it went successful, even though an excited Justin got a little weirded out right before bedtime when he realized this was for real. So the next morning these boys, who woke up before 7am, went in closer to 9am when Lily woke up. One big happy all in the pack 'n play.

All three getting cozy in Justin's bed.

On Saturday we went to a birthday party and then came home to have Harper & Asher over for part of the night. I had just finished feeding the kids, took off their clothes, and we were about to get in the bathtub. Tried to get a photo of the three of them.

Diaper buds. Justin has been sporting this "Mr. Cool" look some in the photos.

Little twins - these guys just love on each other. And Miss Harper got to stay up with Aunt Shani while the boys went to bed. it was actually quite fun having a shadow and have girly conversation. She even prayed over Roxy's soul after reading a Jesus story to her.

Such little buds.

And on an update, since I have been lax on the blogging. It's amazing how much better your A/C works when you refill your freon levels. And then Derek replaced all 30 air vents in our house since the 1990s one apparently blew the hot air down, thus never getting the house cool enough. Let's just say couldn't have been better timing since we are having this crazy heat wave in Houston.

Justin has been more consistent on sleeping through the night. Tracy got us the Veggie Tales book :Where is God when I am scared?, we've been praying over his thoughts at night, and after a random run in in the dark hallway (with no tears, just a walk through the house at a weird hour -- not cool), we changed the locks on his room and lock him in at night. He knocks when he wants out, and no longer roams freely. We are all sleeping better these days - Praise God.

And a random note I leave you with. Derek and I went out a few weeks ago to the Studio Movie Grill in Town & Country. It's new and it's dinner while you watch a movie. Great for folks like us that want to do both but not when you are paying a babysitter. It just drags out the evening, is very pricey, and you don't get to talk. We saw Up, the new Pixar movie. We loved it and even watched it 3D. This place serves beer, wine, margaritas, etc. and a lot of food. You should go check it out, and they have movies for kids for $1 during the summer at 11am each weekday. Nice place, especially since I never get to go to the movies.

Old School Programs

I stumbled upon these old photos from two previous programs that Justin and his classmates performed at Mother's Day Out. These photos aren't great (by my standards), which is why I think I kind of forgot about them. But I had to tell a certain story.

The first one was on a cold Sunday morning in March. Justin did great, clapping to the beat and singing when he was supposed to.

He's on the far right, in case you can't decipher.

Even caught him hamming it up after the songs and before the children's story time during the service.

Then comes out end of the year program in May. The day before his teachers told me that he did a fantastic job at rehearsals. So I go sit on the front row with my lens (really needed a zoom lens) and get ready. He did great during the God Bless America song with their hands on their hearts.

And the entire toddler program had a song where the teachers called out each child's name and then they would stand up. He did this as well and almost stood up too long. Guess he liked all the clapping.

Then there was the next song. Pride is an ugly thing, especially when it comes to being a parent. Humility sometimes just hurts a little. My son became just downright defiant and would not perform. Not shy, but just would not do it. The others are touching their feet. Not Justin!

He even crossed his arms! I was MORTIFIED!

He eventually started performing after turning around and looking at the wall. If I was I had a wooden spoon that I could have thrown at his bottom. Oh well. I did notice just how much he had grown when he stood by two younger kids in his class. He looked like a beast up next to them.

I love this cool kid look in the photo - me and my peeps. Jake, Justin, & Braden gave each other a big ole hug.

I even had a few parents tell me later that Justin was their favorite part of the entire program - they laughed the entire time. I nicely told them that I was never laughing....

Loving the water this summer

What a difference a year makes when it comes to a little boy in the water. Justin is quite the rambunctious little fellow, which makes this lover of little boys so proud. I love my rough and tumble little fella, until it comes time for discipline. Since I have somehow gotten myself behind in blog posts again, I am (gasp!) combining several posts into one. not one for normally doing this, and never passing ANY judgment on those that do, I thought we would make this the water post.

We finished swim lessons a few weeks ago. I have learned in situations like this to go in with no expectations, and you might be surprised. And if not, then you aren't disappointed either. Justin did catch on quickly, which helps that he was just the right age to get it. I feel like kids either get it or they don't. And he got it. Now, we are still years away from me lounging by the pol catching some rays while he swims on his own. But he did great.

Here he is with Miss Georgia with his buddy Chance.

Finally started to use his arms....

..and quit "riding the bicycle" and straightened out his legs as well.

Don't you wish you had neighbors like this? The Wilsons called us over the play in their pool. I walked in totally stunned to see this contraption. Can we come over every day?

Luke sliding down

The little monkey went face first

While in Waco this past week my in-laws took Justin to WRS to play in the pool. Here's Justin jumping into Grandpa's arms.

Might as well learn the right technique for lap pools.

An interesting way to float on your back - noodle style.

Helping water the plants.

About to go face first in the pool in the Michaelis' backyard.

Jake came over the other night, and both boys put not only themselves but as many toys as possible into the pool. Justin did this all the time last year.

At the Afton Village pool with Avery & Jake.

Though it is already blazing hot in Houston, we are trying to stay cool every chance we can get!

This has been me

I have been letting the blog slide this past week or so lately. It doesn't help that either both Derek and I or one of us has been out-of-town for the last 4 weeks in a row. But I have been in Waco this past week taking photos for my dad's Starburst junior golf tournament. He started this thing 11 years ago, and now it is the largest junior golf tournament in the world. You can see that all of my organizational and party planning skills are inherited, not to mention that my mom is great at making events happen as well.

So I rented this lens from a site that Shane stumbled on recently called Photo Rental Source. The guy was so great in giving me a discount on the lens and monopod (like a tripod, only with one leg, hence the prefix "mono") since I didn't need it for the entire week. I thought that was nice. Then the real clutch was when I was leaving Lori's house after shooting some photos of Anna for her 3 month shot. I was walking out the door saying I needed to meet this guy named Brad to get my lens. She said there was a guy named Brad in her Sunday School class at First Baptist that was starting a rental company. Turns out is is the same guy - Houston is such the small world. So i thought I would give him a little publicity and brag on how easy it was. They can ship anywhere, but for us Houstonians you can meet at a Starbucks, have a quick tutorial, and walk away with $1000s of equipment that you didn't have to buy and get to return. I will definitely be using him again, especially for any special events or vacations.

It's no wonder people kept asking me for my business card or asking what paper I worked for. And when I had the extender on, which doubled the 70-200mm zoom lens (which Brad threw in the extender last minute for me to try), that thing was even longer. And with the wind it was downright heavy. Another woman was working as a volunteer for the tournament and let me borrow her Canon 50D. Heavier camera, but very fast shutter speed. Loved it!



A side note on Justin: we have not been doing well at night. Derek and I feel like we have a newborn (ironic, since I want one so badly). The worst part is when you are expecting to have a good night's sleep and then have multiple interruptions. Justin has been waking up with either nightmares or night terrors. Not quite sure about the difference of either. He is scared of a tiger in his room that we have to double check under the bed each night. He wakes up, opens up all four plantation shutters (I guess he's looking to see what's out there), turns off his noisemaker, and then comes screaming out the door, crying about a loud noise and the tiger waking him up. Sometimes it's within 4 hours of going to bed, others it's around 2-3am. He is truly scared, not pulling our leg. We will try to comfort him, go back to bed with him, only to have him wake up every 30 minutes to see if we are still there and if the tiger is there. I am truly at a loss of what to do. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. I have been praying over him, his room, and during prayers with him about keeping the enemy at bay from his thoughts. I truly think we're under attack, and just want a good night's sleep for all of us. It got to a climax while we ere in Waco, which made for lots of caffeine consumed while taking photos. That with the pink eye I got in both eyes while in Waco, and the fact that when I got home today our upstairs A/C was frozen (and it was 88 degrees by 3pm). Please keep us in your prayers - just one of the joys of children!

Burgers at the Park

A few weeks ago we last minute got a group of families together at the Moritz park by our house to grill out buffalo burgers. If you have never had or made a buffalo burger, then you don't know what you are missing. Heather introduced a new ingredient to the meat that we will now be using in future burgers - onion soup mix. That, along with our other staples, make for a fantastic (and healthy) burger. I honestly can't remember the last time I bought hamburger meat for burgers - it's that good.

Auden, Henry, Lucy, Justin, and Isabel giving me grins on the slide

Heather busted out Henry's recent birthday stash of bubble-making machines. This was one of the many.

And Bibbin was trying out another cool wand one. Notice the hubbies in the background "watching" the burgers.

Sophie, Heather, me, Leslie, Bibbin, & Brooke

It was a rare evening in May where the wind came and the sun wasn't beating down on us so hard. Probably the last pleasant evening before fall, but it was fun to have spent it outside with friends.

Biblestudy group playdate

A group of us ladies have been meeting together since last summer for biblestudy when we started the No Other Gods book. We still meet every 2-3 weeks for dinner and biblestudy, trading off at each other's houses each time. We don't get the kids together as much during the school year, so we decided to have a fun playdate at my house.

Right before everyone left, we literally threw 4 month-old Carter on the couch and took some photos in less than five minutes. It's easy to capture a cute photo when they are happy, fed, and just plain precious like this sweet boy.

Kaylinn and Justin always have to test each other out before playing nicely. They like to push each other's buttons at first, which always make Katie and I laugh. They both thought this move was pretty funny as Kaylinn would dump the bike backwards, sending Justin was up in the air.

The Hall girls and Roxy are pretty much best buds. Lily, Aubrey, and Emery were getting some kisses while we were taking photos of baby brother Carter on the couch. Kim always does a great job of matching these three - I love it!

Justin & Harper getting cozy on the steps. These guys act like twins sometimes.

The youngest of the group - Hallie, Carter, & Campbell. Lissie was only several weeks old, so we didn't succumb her to the group photo.

Derek stopped by for lunch during the chaos, probably right about the time we all looked at each other and remembered why we liked to get together in the evenings without the kids. But it was fun to have them all together. But we quickly made Derek the photographer to take a group photo.

L-R Marin, Jenn, Hallie, Tracy, Asher, Harper, Aubrey, Emery, Kim, Lily, me & Justin, Emily, Campbell, Chance, Kaylinn, Katie, Lissie, & John David.

Fun time was had by all. Now we await the arrival of the newest member of the group to join us anyday now - Tanner Hopkins....